Alien Isolation

I have been playing this for a couple of frustrating days and the worst part I hope is over, the alien which is always there no matter how you try to avoid it - it will kill you again and again.

Now this would be lame to start a topic for its gamplay I realize, but it has an engine almost exactly like IDs OpenGl engine that would be very well known here. It is almost identical to the Doom 3 engine at first glance and the one thing that tipped me off was the refraction in the glass and the gaseous vapors that exist in areas.

The only thing I notice when I was not trying to find a way around that damn alien bastard ("Alien" and not "Aliens" is one of my favorite Sci-Fi / Horror movies although everyone swears Aliens is better but is a matter of opinion) is the lighting and of course the advanced rendering, this one supposedly caters to AMD, but my GTX 1080 see's no stuttering at all, which again reminds me of IDs famous (to me) optimized OpenGl engines.

I am not a person to pick apart engines in a game and or their tech. Its just the similarities are amazing to me from ID tech 4 game engine in 2004, has a similar look to the "Cathode Engine" in 2014. ID has always used OpenGl for their games when DirectX 10 cane out ID still used OpenGl I believe even Rage may have used OpenGl.

After playing more, I got pretty tired of hiding in lockers and having the game take over my mouse and keyboard to do things for me (like hide in lockers); and the scripted events, interactions, and alien actions eventually rubbed me the wrong way. Later in the game, the hiding-in-lockers game-mechanic-which-shouldn't-have-been-a-repetitive-game-mechanic thing became very tiresome. For this game, I should have played on the lowest Difficulty setting from the start, just so I could breeze through the game to see the graphics and story. Mainstream stealth gaming sure hasn't really evolved much since Thief 1/2. I'm not sure it's evolved at all, tbh.

On another note, I heard the new God of War won't have *any* jumping in it. Whaaa?? Did they use Thief 4 as inspiration on the direction games should go in terms of player movement? Wow...

Honestly I found the game to be really engaging and fun as long as the stealth isn't overthought (weird I know cause you're supposed to be sneaky). Also playing on max difficulty is dumb imo, because the Alien itself just comes stomping back in every 20 seconds (no seriously I actually counted). But one step below max feels right for the game's actual pacing to realism ratio. All I can say is walk don't run. Lockers are actually fairly retarded in the game because the Alien just gets pickier and the AI sorta adapts it's strat to your slower progress. If you keep moving pretty brisk (walking mind you) it's actually fairly easy to outsmart the Alien's adaptive traits. I can't remember exactly now but the numbers in the corner on the motion tracker (as some steam guides will tell you) are fairly literal to your present level of danger. I took that line of thinking to heart and whenever my numbers were in the green I made a slow and steady dash for the next hiding spot. Keeping that always on the move ideology in mind really seems like the only way to succeed at the game.

If you're not too far along yet don't read this spoiler but if you just don't care...

Spoiler

If you thought one was bad, just you wait till there's a generator room full of those slimy bastards!

Even though I never quite got the nerve to finish the game I found Alien Isolation to be a really fresh perspective in the stealth horror genre. I specifically loved how much attention the devs payed to keeping in line with the first film's art direction. A literal step they took was if it couldn't be done by 1979 special effect standards then it shouldn't be shipped in the game. That being said there are a bit of fun animated sequences that I still enjoyed as long as I didn't have to replay the same segment a bunch. I'd say it's definitely a personal taste bit on the animations department because I absolutely loved the keycard savegame terminals. All in all it was my fav game of that year's releases by far. Just kind of a dynamic element I hadn't really seen in other games prior to that.

I was also somewhat okay with the stealth for half the game... but then the hide and seek game grows old fast in the later parts of the game.

The graphics were pretty cool, for sure

Honestly I'm pretty sure I was getting down to the end.

Spoiler

I was at the part where you've gotta fiddle with some generator shizzle in the reactor section. Annnnnd that's where you find out there's a lot more than one Alien aboard Sevastopol. Because yeah when you launch that first bugger out the airlock it's the best feeling in the world. You do get to spend a fairly lengthy portion with no Aliens to run from either.

I am not a person to pick apart engines in a game and or their tech. Its just the similarities are amazing to me from ID tech 4 game engine in 2004, has a similar look to the "Cathode Engine" in 2014. ID has always used OpenGl for their games when DirectX 10 cane out ID still used OpenGl I believe even Rage may have used OpenGl.

Otherwise they look similar.

All idSofware engines and games use OpenGL even idTech 6 (minus Wolfenstein 2009 that uses a D3D dx9 render in its single player but was not made by idSoftware), the diference now is that they also support Vulkan, but culturally is the same, idSofware always wanted to support open standards and both OpenGL and Vulkan are open standards, lets hope they will continue doing so.

About the games may look similar to you but the underlying tech couldn't be more different, idtech 4 and Cathode engine are generations apart and even use different rendering and shading paradigms, idtech 4 is a OpenGL forward rendering engine using "old" style shaders, cathode is a D3D Dx11 deferred rendering engine using modern PBR shading, plus other diferences. Only the art style and game type can imo really be said to be similar to Doom 3, Horror FPS on a futuristic industrial setting (Alien Isolation has no real gun combat tho).

OK I just finished and I don't think this is a spoiler so I believe it to be a lot like Thief 4. I am sure we all know about the games that had console versions to be considered first and this and thief 4 were chalk-full of it, but I did find Alien Isolation to be worse at times. I also played the game at normal difficulty so that would be a consideration in my views I guess.

Spoiler

The search with "E" and then sticking to it while an enemy is around until you press "Q" is UN-intuitive and frustrating. You would be on a rewire and it would take way to long to quit sticking to the device after remembering "Q". i must have pressed "Escape" at least 1/4 of the time before remembering "Q"

I know I died over 100 times in the game - thanks to steam to point out my skill in the game, but again and again in the last quarter of the game. It was a chore to go back and forth to get anywhere further in the game. I don't like hand holding in most newer games but I must have been stuck at least 50 times wondering where to go or what to do, sometimes the map was also limiting in this affect.

And the battle to get to the ship was almost painful, this filler is not needed, just make a shorter game.

But as said the graphics are nice, and really reminded me of System Shock 2 - the level design anyway - but with way more detail and shader effects. Back then the polygon count was an issue to keep it optimized, last play of Thief 1, the guards looked like they were about 10 ploy's.

OK I just finished and I don't think this is a spoiler so I believe it to be a lot like Thief 4.

Haahahahahaha... No. A: I is much, much better game than Thief 4. I finished it on hard, and it was very well designed, and felt meaningful for what it wanted to do. And yes, as most AAA games it was designed with controller in mind, and that's how I played it. One thing I didn't like was the pacing towards the end. I think the game was too long. Seems like devs were so in love with their Alien that they prolonged the last section by a few hours, just to give players more content.

Haahahahahaha... No. A: I is much, much better game than Thief 4. I finished it on hard, and it was very well designed, and felt meaningful for what it wanted to do. And yes, as most AAA games it was designed with controller in mind, and that's how I played it. One thing I didn't like was the pacing towards the end. I think the game was too long. Seems like devs were so in love with their Alien that they prolonged the last section by a few hours, just to give players more content.

One thing I didn't like was the pacing towards the end. I think the game was too long. Seems like devs were so in love with their Alien that they prolonged the last section by a few hours, just to give players more content.

You can say that again.

Spoiler

The constant press and hold down mouse button and then press S, or hold both mouse buttons and press W. Then elsewhere Press E Press E again then press Q and Press Q again. I got stuck so many times pressing ESC and forgetting to press Q again, it was like being super glued to the device. "Oh F*** I hear that bastard coming I press "ESC" and WTF he's getting closer I press ESC again and WTF "oh yeah I have to press Q"

How about pressing E, or pressing E then picking options with the mouse and then Pressing ESC. This game was made for a console and they kept the same Press X, Press up now press A twice. This was counter intuitive for PC game play. This was the reason I could not play a large number of console ports especially Resident Evil 3 or 4 I don't remember. The Evil Within is another port that is console heavy and stopped playing.

The mini puzzles are cool though, as well as the save devices.

There was a time way late in the game that I could not select a weapon until I pressed on a non weapon 8 times and another non weapon 3 times and then maybe I would get my weapon out.

The alien during the final parts I literally hated, I could not wait until I finally finished the game. The get from here to there and then go from there to here and back to there with 1 hallway to do this in while the alien is just a deterrent to annoy you, and I started to lose my patients with it, and after seeing the "Angry Video Game Nerd" I try my best to keep my temper down.

The gun play was not as I hoped and there was some in it, but the enemy had perfect aim even if you were running, every bullet hit you no matter how far away you were.

Like you and I say the last parts were unnecessary with boatloads of cut scenes, frustration, and it felt almost impossible. Like getting off of Sate Hospital Parole, 8 years that took an act of god - as they tell me - to set me free.

I will not add the good parts of the game but they far outweigh the bad. Seriously there was very good aspects to the game but it would take way to long to type

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I am not trying to discredit the game it's just my opinion and the game has far greater aspects to it to weigh in the god to bad I would say 3 good 1 bad, if this would matter.

Also Judith, the comment I made about Thief 4 was about the console reminisce and the constant odd keyboard and mouse controls.

So a dummy like myself to review this game I would give it 65 out of 100 - this is due to frustration in "some" of the game play aspects (mainly keyboard and mouse controls, but also a feeling of impossibility to finish the game), that tried my patience for far too long

In general it just seemed impossible at times and no hope at all to finish it.

But that was kind of the point. You were an engineer, not some bloody Isaac Clarke. Alien was the cat, you were the mouse. Both humans and synthetics had shitty attitude towards you. Gunplay was supposed to be messy. And everything you managed to repair was just a glimmer of hope before another thing got broken, or situation went even more downhill. That was brillianty executed, along with all interface elements. Even stuff like saving added to tension. Comparing this to a cripple of a game that is Thief 4 is insane. A:I is 10x above T4 in terms of quality of... everything.

But that was kind of the point. You were an engineer, not some bloody Isaac Clarke. Alien was the cat, you were the mouse. Both humans and synthetics had shitty attitude towards you. Gunplay was supposed to be messy. And everything you managed to repair was just a glimmer of hope before another thing got broken, or situation went even more downhill. That was brillianty executed, along with all interface elements. Even stuff like saving added to tension. Comparing this to a cripple of a game that is Thief 4 is insane. A:I is 10x above T4 in terms of quality of... everything.

Judith "controls" "and "the last part of the game" is my main gripe. Imagine having the same controls in any Thief before 4, You had to be quick in Thief games you have simple controls that did not impact gameplay for me at all, whereas in Alien Isolation the controls did impair the game for me. Imagine in Thief 2 you had to hold down the right mouse button and press E and then Q then press the left button once to open a door. This is all console crap, I am sorry for this but it really pisses me off. I am also new to the not being able to fight back games so the impossibility of it just got tedious. When I go in to Amnesia I know I am completely vulnerable and I will be prepared.

Please forget my Thief 4 comment, it was based on the controls only.

Spoiler

The AI was good, they outwitted me most of the game. She did have a revolver early on so she at least she could fight back and I do like her lack of strength at certain things she had to do as this would be similar to a person of her build.

Also the idea that she would know what to do with all of the stations electronic and mechanical components was strange, myself I had no idea of WTF I am doing half of the time, some of which did not make sense and I got stuck almost as many times as in Wizardry 5 - 7

I think a key aspect my opinion is that not a second of actual fear or scare came when that green beast killed me, I have had 3 decades of real trauma in my own life so it just got irritating for me.

just a question would I be better of with Mass Effect 1 or Dead Space 1 for my next game, or play some old DOS or Amiga RPG's.

OK good walk through I did not need it, but then again I played on normal. I did want to know where to go and what to do next at certain frustrating times.

My advice would be to not use this walk through as much as possible and please play on normal your first time in, this was one of the hardest most frustrating game I can remember, and at times felt impossible. i just finished it so it is in my mind and I am sure I have played harder games but I do not remember.

This guy in the second episode does seem to know exactly where to go and what to do, so probably not his first run.

The 4 guys in the plaza shot at me so many times, at every angle no matter where I was, even running they hit me every single time they fired their gun with godlike aim that I made sure I killed them all with the maintenance jack. Not a good thing but I could not help myself.